friends without benefits.

I have a good friend from high school who has recently moved back to the area. She went to college out of state and then went straight to getting her masters even further away, so we really haven't been living in the same town since 2005. I know lots of people in their twenties are dealing with the same thing - finding themselves back in their hometowns, surrounded by people that they don't really know anymore. I've definitely changed a lot in the last 7 years, so it's hard to feel expected to fall back into old friendships.

Last night this friend and I had tickets to a concert (side note - KEANE concert - INCREDIBLE) and went out to her favorite place for dinner (I think she might think it's my favorite too, but it's very high calorie, high fat, high salt, high cost Asian food...so it's not). She is not an exerciser, doesn't eat healthfully and doesn't really take care of herself, so it's not surprising that she wanted to do the giant dinner special with appetizers, soup, entrees, and desserts. Plus she wanted to order drinks and an additional order of friend rice. It's definitely a challenge to stick to my health goals when I'm surrounded by choices like this, but I decided to allow myself some indulgences during our meal, but also make sure that I didn't ruin my entire day by stuffing myself so full I couldn't enjoy the show. I think I achieved this my indulging in a glass of wine and a dessert, but also stayed on track by not eating any of the additional fried rice and bringing half of my meal home and eating it for lunch today.

leftover curried Asian salmon with garlic rice plus a big glass of water and a salad I put together this morning.

I tend to surround myself with people who have the same health and fitness goals as I do which allows us to go to go on runs or attend fitness classes together instead of just eating or watching TV when we hang out. However, with some moderation, balancing a relationship with someone from your past who has very different goals can be manageable!